Tuesday, October 28, 2014

Cranky Frankie Turns 3: a little monster birthday party

On Sunday, Frankie turned three years old. You can imagine his excitement.

We threw him a Little Monster-themed birthday party. Here's how it went down.

THE DECOR

Red tissue balls and green hanging fans, fabric circus bunting, a mini monsters banner, a homemade personalized Happy Birthday Frankie banner, and many MANY trash monsters made for the occasion by Bobby and Gus.

THE FOOD

The food was selected by the birthday boy. His initial request was for "raisins and string cheese." I was able to talk him into a few more choices.

THE MENU

Chilling Chips

Shocking String Cheese

Scary Salad

Hair-Raising Raisins

Fried Monster

Creepy Carrots

Dreadful Dip

Weird Water

Beastly Biscuits

Monster Mash -ed Potatoes

Petrifying Punch

Frightening Fruit

The punch was really fun, here's how I did it:

My other favorite was the watermelon monster. These are SO EASY, way easier than carving pumpkins. I was going to buy a watermelon for the fruit salad anyway, so making it into a decoration was free!

THE GAMES

As usual, Jack was our Master of Ceremonies. This time, he planned a Feed-the-Monster bean bag toss game:

And a Pin-the-Eyeball-on-the-Monster game:

The cutest thing about that one was that at the end, he announced that every kid had gotten his eyeball in just the right place, so they each won a prize. (One of those little pinwheels.)

THE CRAFT

Inspired by this pin, the big kids set up a Monster Headband Making station.

I cut felt rectangles and sewed elastic to the sides. The kids cut out bunches of eyes, noses, mouths, and fangs. Plus we had feathers and puff balls and pipe cleaners. We used glue dots, which are SO EASY and don't require drying, but they didn't keep the felt pieces together all that long. It was fine for the party, but I think, over-all, glue would have been a better choice.

THE CAKE

Betty made the cupcakes. They were simple to make, but turned out quite professional looking!

And don't forget about the Catholic All Year Catholic Costume Contest! Share a photo of your child in a Catholic Costume for Halloween or All Saints Day, on the Catholic All Year Facebook page, on Instagram with hashtag #catholiccostume, or via email at catholicallyear @ gmail . com. Inspire those around you! Win a fabulous prize!

I probably should have mentioned it in the post, but it was really hard for me to let go and let them help. Especially on the cake. I had the choice of going out to dinner with Jim or staying home to make the cupcakes myself, and I seriously considered turning him down for date night because I wanted to make sure the cupcakes were just so. But, reason prevailed, and I realized it didn't matter if they ended up a little wonky and I went out with my husband. And then they turned out perfectly anyway!

There's a temptation looking around too much on Pinterest, that makes me think everything should always be perfect. But it's much more fun (and less time consuming) if we all get involved and it doesn't have to be perfect!

I love the scary watermelon and punch idea, but all the ideas are great! That's great that your kids were involved so much! And did you mean to say that Jack was the "Monster" of ceremonies? HAHA! LOL! Happy birthday to your little, sweet monster!

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